She was constantly on his mind. Disappointed that she wasn’t back yet, he walked through the house to the kitchen. The knocking persisted. “Signorina Marsh?” a familiar voice called out.
Fortunato again. He was a good kid. A little mischievous, but fun. So he’d come to see Annabelle again. The boy had good taste and eyes to see.
Out of his five nieces and nephews, Lucca had to admit he enjoyed him the most. Fortunato had this idea he would go into the military, too. None of the family was happy about it, and Lucca had never encouraged it. But at seventeen, a boy had his dreams. No one understood that better than Lucca.
He unlocked the door, surprising the life out of Fortunato. “Hey—when did you come home?” If Lucca didn’t miss his guess, the teen sounded a trifle disappointed.
“I got in the other night.”
“You did?”
“Sì.” He smiled. “Want to come in?”
“Yeah.” After the door closed they high-fived each other.
“How’s life treating you?” Lucca tossed him a plum from the fridge and took one for himself.
“It’s okay.” He squinted up at Lucca. “How long are you home for this time?”
“For good.”
In a matter of seconds he’d surprised his nephew again. Fortunato looked perplexed. “I thought you were going to stay in the military until you retired.”
“So did I, but my plans changed.”
“How come?”
He gave his nephew the same answer he’d given his father. “Because I got injured and my priorities changed. I decided I wanted to do something different with the rest of my life.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“I’m going to be a farmer.”
“You’re kidding! You? A fighter pilot?”
“That’s right. I’ve spent enough time in the air. Now I want to stay on the ground and get my hands dirty.”
Laughter burst out of his nephew. “That’s cool.” Lucca finished off his plum while Fortunato looked around. “I saw Signorina Marsh’s car in the drive. Is she here?”
“You mean the American who’s working for your grandfather. She’s probably still out with some of her coworkers.”
“Oh.” His face fell. “I met her the other day.”
“Papa told me he’d hired her to do modeling for some of his ads.”
“That’s what I heard, too. She’s one babe.”
“But a little old for you, right?”
A ruddy color stained Fortunato’s cheeks. “I bet she’s no more than twenty-five. T
here’s no harm looking.”
“No. There’s no harm in that.” Lucca had done it himself, but not nearly long enough. In fact he planned to tell Annabelle what his nephew had said. She needed to realize she wasn’t all washed up after what her ex had done to her.
Fortunato’s blond brows lifted. When they did that, he reminded Lucca of Ruggero. “She’s already got some guy hanging around.”
“How do you know that?”